The Works of George Berkeley. Vol. 1 of 4: Philosophical Works, 1705-21Berkeley, George
Philosophy
The Works of George Berkeley. Vol. 1 of 4: Philosophical Works, 1705-21
Berkeley, George
Philosophy -- Early works to 1800
The social chaos of Ireland was the occasion of what to some may be the
most interesting of Berkeley’s writings. His thoughts found vent
characteristically in a series of penetrating practical queries. The First
Part of the _Querist_ appeared in 1735, anonymously, edited by Dr. Madden
of Dublin, who along with Prior had lately founded a Society for promoting
industrial arts in Ireland. The Second and Third Parts were published in
the two following years. _A Discourse to Magistrates occasioned by the
Enormous Licence and Irreligion of the Times_, which appeared in 1736, was
another endeavour, with like philanthropic intention. And the only
important break in his secluded life at Cloyne, in eighteen years of
residence, was when he went for some months to Dublin in 1737, to render
social service to Ireland in the Irish House of Lords.
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His metaphysic, at first encountered by ridicule, was now beginning to
receive more serious treatment. A Scotsman had already recognised it. In
1739 another and more famous Scotsman, David Hume, refers thus to Berkeley
in one of the opening sections of his _Treatise of Human Nature_: “A very
material question has been started concerning abstract or general
ideas—whether they be general or particular in the mind’s conception of
them. A great philosopher, Dr. Berkeley, has disputed the received opinion
in this particular, and has asserted that all general ideas are nothing
but particular ones, annexed to a certain term which gives them a more
extensive signification, and makes them recall upon occasion other
individuals which are similar to them. I look upon this to be one of the
greatest and most valuable discoveries that has been made of late years in
the republic of letters.” It does not appear that Berkeley heard of Hume.
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